Last weekend, I did the introductory massage course at the Australian College of Massage. It was a great weekend; I learned a lot about technique and posture, and got to give and receive about five massages. Verrrrry nice. Of course as soon as the first day finished, I wanted to enrol in the Cert IV, get accredited and start my own clinic.

This coming Saturday, I’m working at Goodness Gracious Me gratitude lifeclass (which is being held at the Scripture Union building where I work, so my colleague Des and I volunteered to work it so we could get a free ticket to the class) and will no doubt give me a bit of a boost.

Maybe, having stirred them up, eventually all of this will help the cicadas to quiet and allow me to try and make some sense of it all.

Okay, so here’s the big dream of what I would love to be happening in a few years.

Let’s assume that mum and I will stay in our little house for a few years yet. Despite the downsides of the main road, we love the house and the garden. Oh, the garden! It’s like a tranquil little rainforesty paradise.

Come through the many gateways to my creative wilderness…one day…

Ever since we moved here I have had dreams of building a studio in the backyard, with windows facing into the greenery, where I could do my creative work and not be sleeping, working and creating all in my bedroom (not to mention storing all the copious amounts of fabric and paraphernalia that goes along with making anything).

I want to build a little multipurpose studio, with lots of light, good sound/temperature insulation, a bathroom, and storage space. It would have a work table for sewing, spot for writing and a space in the middle for a massage table without it feeling like when you get a massage at a beauty salon or something and it’s basically the size of a closet and you spend the whole time feeling sorry for the therapist because they can’t move around properly.

Something like this from Garden Studios (only with some sort of storage solution):

I would be able to sew and write and design there. I would be able to tidy things away into the excellent storage and set up the massage space and do regular massages to keep some regular cash flow coming in, while selling my creations (both sewn and written). I might have to go and work somewhere for a couple of days a week, also to keep regular cash flow coming in. But the rest of the time I would be concentrating on creating, on giving joy to people, on making positive, relaxing spaces where people would love to come, on filling up my creative/nourishment tank.

But, again, that costs lots of money of course! So it’s a long-term dream. I don’t know how I’ll get there. But that’s what’s buzzing around in my head at the moment. I need to be patient and recognise that these things don’t have to happen right now. Everything takes time. But it helps to have a direction to step in.

And this is at the forefront of my mind, always:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”